Reading Between the Lines: Speaker Boehner’s Real Op-Ed

The time has come for your afternoon laugh. Just in case you missed House Speaker Boehner’s riveting op-ed “Obama’s outreach is nice, but where’s the leadership?” in the Washington Post attempting to lecture President Obama on leadership, of all things, we wanted to share some of the points we found particularly fascinating:

“…the president will have to move beyond the same proposals and Democratic dogma. For all of Washington’s focus on the president’s outreach to Republicans, it’s his engagement with members of his own party that will determine whether we succeed in dealing with the challenges facing our economy.”

That’s hysterical. We thought the Speaker, of all people, wouldn’t need to be reminded that every time we’ve come close to a deal, it’s been internal Republican drama that’s scuttled talks. We won’t even get into all the bills to keep government running and preventing a default on our debt that he needed Democratic votes to pass because he couldn’t get his far-right wing on board.

And believe it or not, it gets even better...

“… Washington owes the people a responsible, balanced budget. … Our balanced budget means more economic security for workers and parents, a more secure retirement for the elderly and more opportunities for younger workers.”

Oh boy. Here we go with their vision of balance and responsibility, again. So a recycled budget full of policies rejected by the American people and $962 billion in “other mandatory” unspecified cuts… Yup, that sure is a different way of defining responsibility.

And as for providing “more economic security” for American families, workers students, seniors, etc.? In Republican-speak, that’s translated to: more tax breaks for the wealthy and cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from critical programs important to American communities.